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Alliance members praised for professionalism and commitment to industry best practice
Members of the Building Services Engineering Employment Agency Alliance were presented with their membership certificates during a reception held in the House of Commons on Wednesday 26 November.
The alliance was established by the HVCA earlier this year, in acknowledgement of the increasingly important role employment agencies are playing in the sector's supply chain.
To qualify for alliance membership, organisations must be able to demonstrate – via an independent inspection and audit regime – that they meet industry– recognised standards in relation to a range of business processes and procedures, including vocational training and health and safety.
In presenting certificates to 12 of the 14 current members, Lord O'Neill of Clackmannan, independent chairman of the alliance, praised their commitment to best practice in all its aspects.
"The high standards of professionalism demonstrated by members of the Building Services Engineering Employment Agency Alliance provide a significant degree of assurance to contractors seeking to augment their workforce on a temporary basis," said Lord O'Neill.
The House of Commons event also featured a presentation from Ed Dwan, tax risk management partner at BDO Stoy Hayward, on a range of taxation issues of relevance both to employment agencies and to building services engineering contractors.
Lord O'Neill of Clackmannan (front row, third from right) with representatives of alliance members at the House of Commons on 26 November (back row, left to right): Peter Cooper, Oracle Global Resourcing; Mike Power, Vital Resources; Max White, First Step Recruitment Solutions; Andy Howard, Options Employment (Southern); Richard Snarey, Phoenix Resourcing Services; Antony Weir, Optima Site Solutions; Iain Coates, Diamond Mechanical and Electrical Engineering; (front row, left to right): John McBrien, Redwood Building Services; Jim Simms, BMS Group; Linda Gleeson, CSS Recruitment Services; Siobhain Ahearne, Gulmanda Site Services; and Darren Burnett, On-Site Recruitment Solutions.
The launch of the Building Services Engineering Employment Agency Alliance took place at the Tower of London on Tuesday 15 April 2008.
The Building Services Engineering Employment Agency Alliance represents a voluntary grouping of employment agencies that supply skilled personnel to contractors across building services engineering.
Three agencies have already achieved Alliance membership, following a series of pilot audits carried out in the second half of 2007. They are: the Capital Group; Oracle Global Resourcing Ltd; and Phoenix Resourcing Services Ltd.
To qualify for membership, an agency must be able to demonstrate its compliance with the recognised industry standards contained in the Alliance’s Key Commitments.
These will be used to establish whether an organisation is operating on a sound commercial footing, is appropriately regulated, and displays a genuine commitment to the sector.
To ensure compliance with the Key Commitments, agencies seeking Alliance membership must submit to a business audit carried out by BM TRADA Certification.
This process will be repeated every three years, with an annual compliance inspection taking place in each intervening year.
“Formation of the Alliance recognises the increasingly important role that employment agencies are playing in the supply chain – along with a need for clear standards by which their performance can be judged,” explained Peter Rimmer, head of the HVCA’s Employment Affairs Department.
“It will also facilitate strategic dialogue between contractors and their manpower suppliers on a range of issues – including education and training, health and safety, workforce competence and legislation.”
Independent chairman of the Alliance is former MP and Labour peer Lord O’Neill of Clackmannan.
“There was a time when the very existence of employment agencies – and the employment of agency workers – was viewed with much suspicion,” Lord O’Neill acknowledged.
Representatives of the first three Alliance members were presented
with their membership certificates during the launch by chairman Lord O’Neill of Clackmannan (left). They are (left to right) Michael Trott of Capital Group, Eugene Semeniuk of Oracle Global Resourcing and Mark Evans of Phoenix Resourcing Services.
In these competitive times, however, many building services engineering contractors had found it increasingly difficult to ensure that the skills and competences of their permanent employees always matched their clients’ requirements.
“As a result, agencies have become a familiar – and, in many cases, a much-valued – feature of the overall employment landscape, as well as a significant provider of skilled labour.
“It is logical, therefore, that the industry’s focus should have turned away from the wholesale discouragement of employment agency activity – and towards differentiating between their relative merits.
“The purpose of the Building Services Engineering Employment Agency Alliance is to assist in just such differentiation,” Lord O’Neill concluded.
For further information, contact John Meadley on 020 7313 4914 (jmeadley@hvca.org.uk).
